Modeling movement and weapons in a space-combat game

How should a game based on a science-fiction book handle movement and weapons?

Choose the scale first, then model the setting's stated physics and exceptions. Fighter combat, grand strategy, and Scattered Stars' micro-jump combat would require different movement and weapon systems.

Glynn explains that a game's scale determines which movement and weapons decisions it needs to represent. Starfighter combat in Castle Federation would differ from a grand-strategy game about the post-imperial setting of Peacekeepers of Sol. The books supply physical rules and their explicit departures from real physics, which a game would then model at the chosen scale. Scattered Stars provides a more specific example: its fighter combat depends on short micro-jump cooldowns and restricted targeting ranges. The participants tentatively recall a six-second cooldown rather than establishing it as an exact specification. Glynn describes multiphase jamming as an invented mechanism chosen to produce that kind of combat.